"Non-issue, girls. It's simply a matter of the loose lips being faster than the aging brain. No biggie. "

Then he ripped me for being too partisan. This is from a guy who never has a good thing to say about the President and defends Bush's war's to this day. I hope he is eating well.

Look at my posts from the past 2 years and will you find that I have given more space to the Republican candidates in Luzerne County then the papers have. Such Bullspit.

Betty Rox (and she does) over at Pure Bunkum is worried about town meetings in addition to jumping on the bandwagon on this issue. I'm sure that Kanjo won't be doing any townhall type meetings after what happened last year and I can't blame him. They turned into ambushes by the Teabagger crowd.

Yes, Democrat Paul Kanjorski is irritating, liberal, and out of touch, but it seems like a huge stretch to interpret these remarks, as some conservatives have, as a slam at the poor,

He's not saying the poor are minorities or defective, he's saying that's what people INSINUATE the people having a hard time in this recession are like. The point he's trying to make is that these are just regular people who are having a hard time in a tough economy.

So honestly, I don't see anything wrong with his remarks at all.

The Hazleton Standard Speaker had one of those articles that theYonk keeps talking about. I wish I wrote that.

Last month, the Lou Barletta campaign attacked Rep. Paul Kanjorski for supporting student loan reform that led to layoffs for Sallie Mae, which has a customer service center in Hanover Township. When on the very same day the Barletta campaign implied that Kanjorski was "in bed with Wall Street bankers," it was clear the campaign was off to a mud-slinging start.

The mud got thicker this week. On Monday, the Barletta campaign accused Kanjorski of being a hypocrite for "refusing to meet with the public at traditional summer town hall meetings while agreeing to be the 'special guest' at an event held by his Wall Street buddies near Wilkes-Barre."

The news media largely ignored that salvo, which referred to the congressman's upcoming appearance at a meeting sponsored by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

But Republicans at both the district and national levels hit paydirt Thursday. Barletta's campaign issued a statement calling for Kanjorski to "apologize for comments he made during a U.S. House of Representatives hearing Wednesday in which he called some people 'defective' and said minorities are not 'good people.'"

A review of the tape shows that Kanjorski said no such thing. Speaking ardently in favor of extending Pennsylvania's mortgage assistance program nationally, he was clearly mocking critics who might view the programs as a welfare giveaway. Here's the actual quote: "We're giving relief to people that I deal with in my office every day now unfortunately. But because of the longevity of this recession, these are people, and they're not minorities and they're not defective and they're not all the things that you'd like to insinuate that these programs are about."

Kanjorski didn't say he sees two classes of citizens. He said to his critics, "you'd like to insinuate that."

The sarcasm and passion that underscored that point seems obvious in the video, but it gets lost when you simply read the comments.

At least five minority lawmakers on the Wall Street Reform Conference Committee didn't hear anything offensive. They signed a letter defending Kanjorski. The congressman's constituents should cut him some slack on this one, too.

Kanjorski'sget's some help from his friends that he works with everyday.ChakaFattah

This damage control shows how worried the Kanjo camp is about these remarks and they should be. At the same time Lou Barletta trying to capitalize on racially tinged remarks is dangerous territory for him.

Why don't the liberals acknowledge the hiring of minorities by the Bareltta family? Do they know how many children rode for free at Angela Park, owned by the Barletta family, because they didn't have the money? Do they know how much money or the provision of inkind contributions the Barletta family donated over the years to needy charities and families?

Why don't they acknowledge Lou's personal donation of property he owned to a local charity that services disadvantaged children including the colors of all skin to place a handicapped oriented playground?

Is it because the liberals have been getting away with their bs for too long? Sorry my friend on this we will agree to disagree.

Mitchell and Kanjorski have been getting their way too long in the media pressroom from this area.

I like Mayor Lou, we can spend hours talking baseball and have a few times. He is no more a racist than Congressman Kanjorski is. Which is to say they are not!

Even Barletta has realized that this has gotten to be stupid and want's to move on saying“Dwelling on it will not help create jobs or fix our economy. The important thing now is to focus on the problems facing the people of Northeast Pennsylvania, which is what I have been doing and will continue do as the next congressman from the 11th district. We need to restore public trust and fiscal responsibility in our government and that starts with holding our elected officials accountable this November.”

10 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I have lived in Hazleton my whole life, first of all my family had no money, got nothing for free at Angela Park, secondly i would invite the Barletta family to list the money they gave to charity starting with all the "brothers" they took from this City and never gave back!

McGruff wasnt even living here when the Barletta's gave away all this money he talks about......

But more importantly than the money Lou gave, lets talk about the money he TOOK from people in this area.

Higher property taxes, more fees and larger earned income taxes by working families!!!!!!

Yea he gave, and then he TOOK, The editorial in the Standard Speaker hit it on the head, LOU started the mud slinging because he has NO traction in his campaign.

Actually Lou didn't start the mud slinging. His campaign repsonded to media requests for a comment based on an article that appeared in Human Events on January 23.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37663

Nobody ever claimed the SS or you to be factual. This issue was No. 3 on ABCnews. The Los Angeles Times who blasted Barletta in the past attacked Kanjorski. The story went national by Human Events. To give the Barletta campaign credit for that is flattering but not factual.

Maybe you should read this post on BizzyBlog- Who Can Ignore and Downplay Democrat’s Racist Statement? The Establishment Media Can

Fred Barletta Sr. died in late August. He dedicated much of his life to civic and community involvement. Barletta was a past member of the Hazleton Area School Board and other local governing bodies. His community involvement spanned more than 50 years.

He also was a past board member of the following organizations: Hazleton Area Public Library, Hazleton Area Red Cross, Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce, Hazleton Sports Federation and the Hazleton Jaycees. He was affiliated with Hazleton Little League Baseball for 27 years, Hazleton City Recreation Board and the Hazleton Area Softball League.

He was a lifelong member of Holy Rosary Church, serving as a Eucharistic minister and usher. In addition he was a member of the L.J. Ferdinand Men of Malvern Retreat League for 42 years

In lieu of flowers the family is requesting donations for establishing a scholarship fund for athletics at Hazleton Area High School.

How about the Drifton Softball complex? Is this what you mean by your rendition of taking money OUT of the community?

http://drifton.com/30th.htm

The Barletta family donated an estimated $250,000.00 in materials, such as 800 yards of cement, thousands of tons of stone, equipment, all free of charge.

Or would you misleading people by not recognizing Barletta contributions to Meals on Wheels- http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/standard-speaker-hazleton-pa/mi_8181/is_20090323/meals-wheels-memorial-donations/ai_n53454971/

The American Cancer Society- http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/standard-speaker-hazleton-pa/mi_8181/is_20090528/american-cancer-society-receives-donations/ai_n52090386/ the countless hours Monica Barletta alone puts in on their Daffodil Days project but you wouldn't want to talk about that now would you

How about Fred Jrs efforts for the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation http://www.dystoniahelpfindacure.org/home.html

Gort, this is what I meant about the bs being propogated. Obviously the original comment has no merit whatsoever and was designed to surreptitiously malign the Barletta name.

Lmao. McGruffy you point out a few things for a family business that was operating for 40 yrs or more. And a person or persons writing and destroying people all the while penning those comments under an author's name of MCGRUFF, wants to say others are secretly doing something!!!! Get your head out of America's Mayor tush already.

All this nonsense of crying and pouting but not disclaiming higher taxes and fees under Barletta. Grow up.

This is what I said in my comments to an article I posted about it on my Facebook page:

"Gotta be fair with this -- Congressman's remarks were taken out of context and were misinterpreted. I think what he was actually aiming at was a rebuttal of the racist attitude and stereotype that people who default on loans, mortgages, etc., are all "deadbeats" and the racist stereotype that most of those "deadbeats"... are minorities or willingly negligent and impoverished people (the conservative attitude that if you're poor you probably deserve and did something wrong personally to get that way). AND, the Barletta campaign and Barletta supporters jumping on this and accusing BARLETTA'S OPPONENT of racism is bitterly ironic and offensive to me as someone who is from the district and knows a little something about Bartletta's supporters and the reasons WHY they support him!"

Herself Kanjo is so far out of touch with his constituents that it isnt even funny. Members of his staff are to, try talking to that Paul Maher guy who works for him and you will see. The Obama support is not saving Kanjo this time. Even with all the votes for Obama in 2008 they voted for Obama and Lou in Luz County so this time around Kanjo is done with. Finally all the gaffs and comments that Kanjo has made are coming back to haunt him just check out youtube. You should get a job working for Kanjo im sure they can use another out of touch person to work with the people of the district.

Worked purty dang good, Anon 2:54, thank you for asking! Got more votes for state committee than a lot of the candidates who ran for seats in the state legislature, and I'm on county committee. Why don't you try running for something and find out for yourself? I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to do so anonymously however. hardy har har